The Philadelphia Flyers needed to shore up their backup goaltending dilemma this summer, and it seems that Samuel Ersson has come out the victor.
10-15 years ago, backup goaltenders weren’t seen as hot commodities or an entirely important position to fill out. Most of the league’s top starting netminders would play upwards of 60 games, easily. The modern game has shifted towards analytics and with that has come the power of tandems. You still have your bell-cows, but having a backup goaltender who can play 25-30 games minimum – on any given night – has become a part of the backbone for successful clubs.
In 2014-15 we had 12 goaltenders surpass 60 games, in 2015-16 we had 10 goaltenders, in 2016-17 we had 13 goaltenders, in 2017-18 we had 12 goaltenders, in 2018-19 we dropped to 8, in 2021-22 we dropped to 5, and last year we went back up to 7.
Connor Hellebuyck, Juuse Saros, Alexandar Georgiev, Jake Oettinger, Ilya Sorokin, Jordan Binnington, and Andrei Vasilevskiy were the bell-cows of the NHL playing in more than 60 games. Only 5 more goaltenders played 55+ games in Jacob Markstrom, Igor Shesterkin, Darcy Kuemper, Ville Husso, and Carter Hart.
You look back at the some of the top teams around the league and you notice a pattern. The Carolina Hurricanes had Frederik Andersen, Antti Raanta, and Pyotr Kochetkov, the Boston Bruins had Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark, the Minnesota Wild had Marc-Andre Fleury and Filip Gustavsson, the Toronto Maple Leafs had Ilya Samsonov and Matt Murray, the Edmonton Oilers had Stuart Skinner and Jack Campbell, and the Seattle Kraken had Philipp Grubauer and Martin Jones. The Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights had Logan Thompson and Adin Hill.
The Flyers have rolled with a myriad of tandems and trios over the years, but it has been a bag of mixed tricks:
2014-15
Steve Mason: 18-18-11/2.25 GAA/.928 SV%
Ray Emery: 10-11-7/3.06 GAA/.898 SV%
2015-16
Steve Mason: 23-19-10/2.51 GAA/.918 SV%
Michal Neuvirth: 18-8-4/2.27 GAA/.924 SV%
2016-17
Steve Mason: 26-21-8/2.66 GAA/.908 SV%
Michal Neuvirth: 11-11-1/2.82 GAA/.891 SV%
2017-18
Brian Elliott: 23-11-7/2.66 GAA/.909 SV%
Michal Neuvirth: 9-7-3/2.60 GAA/.915 SV%
Petr Mrazek: 6-6-3/3.22 GAA/.891 SV%
2018-19
Carter Hart: 16-13-1/2.83 GAA/.917 SV%
Brian Elliott: 11-11-1/2.96 GAA/.907 SV%
Calvin Pickard: 4-2-2/4.01 GAA/.863 SV%
Anthony Stolarz: 4-3-3/3.33 GAA/.902 SV%
2019-20
Carter Hart: 24-13-3/2.42 GAA/.914 SV%
Brian Elliott: 16-7-4/2.87 GAA/.899 SV%
2020-21
Carter Hart: 9-11-5/3.67 GAA/.877 SV%
Brian Elliott: 15-9-2/3.06 GAA/.889 SV%
2021-22
Carter Hart: 13-24-7/3.16 GAA/.905 SV%
Martin Jones: 12-18-3/3.42 GAA/.900 SV%
2022-23
Carter Hart: 22-23-10/2.94 GAA/.907 SV%
Felix Sandstrom: 3-12-3/3.72 GAA/.880 SV%
Samuel Ersson: 6-3-0/3.07 GAA/.899 SV%
Some seasons, the Flyers had stout goaltending from both their starters and backups, some years the starters did plenty while the backup was decent-to-mid, and some years they both faltered. It’s not hard to assume, imagine, or guess which seasons the Flyers made the playoffs, just based on the peripheral numbers.
Brian Elliott was around for quite some time and while he provided veteran stability in the lineup and in between the pipes, he was never overly consistent when given a large workload. Steve Mason was as dependable as they came in between the pipes, while Michal Neuvirth had his moments under the sun but always found his name on the injury report. Then in recent years we’ve had Carter Hart, who has had 2 great seasons mixed in with 2 very bad seasons.
Samuel Ersson was thrusted into the blue paint last season when Felix Sandström, and later Carter Hart, went down with an injury. Not much was expected out of his short stint, but Ersson did something that no other goaltender in franchise history had done; he swept the western road trip in California. His calm, cool, and collected demeanour gave the Flyers life out west just before New Year’s.
It almost came out of nowhere, but the Flyers rode the hot hand until he had to return to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms with Sandström reporting back from his conditioning stint. He put up excellent numbers in his short stay with the club, but he made enough of an impact to impress his new coaching staff. John Tortorella was as frank as he’s even been when he discussed Ersson and Sandström. Had it not been for Sandström’s waiver eligibility, Ersson would have stuck around a lot longer.
In 2018-19 with Vasteras IK of the HockeyAllsvenskan – second highest league in Sweden – Ersson was 27-13-0 with a .933 SV% and a 1.95 GAA. He also participated in the World Juniors for Team Sweden, where he went 3-1-0 with a .922 SV% and a 2.23 GAA. In his first taste of the SHL, Ersson posted a .895 SV% and a 2.90 GAA in 35 games the following year, sporting a 14-20-0 record. He improved the following season with a .911 SV% and a 2.96 GAA, sporting a 16-26-0 record for Brynas IF once again.
He started in 42 games for the Phantoms last year where he posted a 24-17-1 record with a .900 SV% and a 2.84 GAA, while lending a helping hand in their post-season push. Mixed in with his successful run for the Flyers, Ersson had a leg up on his competition for playing time in the NHL.
Entering training camp, the backup position was back up for grabs between Ersson, Sandström, and Cal Petersen. Petersen was the first casualty as he was placed on waivers earlier last week after 2 performances with the club in preseason. Then as Petersen cleared waivers, Tortorella admitted that Ersson had won the job as Hart’s backup, solidifying their tandem heading into the regular season. Sandström was edged out and has to be placed on waivers if they are to send him down to the Phantoms.
In 3 preseason games, Ersson allowed 4 goals on 37 shots, claiming a victory in his final game against the Boston Bruins. Going back to last season, after allowing 5 goals in his NHL debut against the Carolina Hurricanes, Ersson went 5-0-0 in his next 6 games with a .935 SV% and only allowing 10 goals along the way – 2 of those goals came in relief of Carter Hart against the Bruins. He endured a rough patch near the end of the season but his claim to the backup position was damn near solidified with his excellent play and Sandstrom struggling to find his form after his conditioning stint.
Ersson will look to provide Hart with stellar goaltending in the 25-30 games that he should be manning the blue paint. Hart is still the starting goaltender and after playing in 55 games last season, expect more of the same this year. For the soon-to-be 24-year-old in Ersson, he has come a long way since being drafted in the 5th round of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft and has continued to improve over the years to a point where he’s the top goaltending prospect in the system.
With Ersson being signed to a two-year extension earlier in the summer, he’s going to be around for the long haul and could figure into the bigger picture depending on what the Flyers do with pending-RFA, Carter Hart in the summer of 2024.
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